FIG. 12 shows a configuration of the conventional reduced iron material feeding equipment that feeds granular reduced iron materials, each of which contains a carbonaceous reducing agent and an iron oxide as main components, to the mobile furnace floor furnace.
In FIG. 12, the granular reduced iron materials that are dried by a drier (called “pellets” hereinafter) are conveyed to a reduced iron material feeding equipment 51 by a belt conveyor 50.
The reduced iron material feeding equipment 51 is constructed mainly by a material reception hopper 52, a cylinder member 53 arranged under the material reception hopper 52, and a plurality of electric cylinders 55 provided onto a furnace main body ceiling 54 to move the cylinder member 53 vertically.
Each of the electric cylinders 55 move the cylinder member 53 up and down to adjust a clearance T between a lower end of the cylinder member 53 and the furnace floor 56, so that the pellets P are fed onto a furnace floor 56 while controlling an amount of supply.
Here, a slide gate 52a for opening/closing the exhaust port is provided to the lower portion of the material reception hopper 52, and a leveling unit 57 is arranged on the downstream side of the cylinder member 53 in the furnace floor traveling direction (see Patent Reference 1, for example).
Also, in the reduced iron material feeding equipment for use in a rotary furnace floor shown in FIG. 13A, one slit 62 is opened in a furnace lid of a furnace main body 60 to extend over a width of a rotary furnace floor 61. The slit 62 is formed to face on the material charging port provided just under this slit 62.
In FIG. 13A, 63 denotes each of burners that are provided in plural on the side wall of the furnace main body 60, and 64 denotes a screw that discharges the reduction produced metals to the outside of the furnace main body 60.
The pellets are fed from a trough 65 of a vibrating conveyor onto the rotary furnace floor 61 through the slit 62 and the material charging port.
Also, as shown in an enlarged view of the trough in FIG. 13B, a plurality of partitions 65a to 65d for guiding the pellets separately are provided to the trough 65 obliquely to a trough side wall 65e, and the trough is constructed such that an amount of pellets being fed onto the rotary furnace floor 61 is reduced gradually from an outer peripheral portion to an inner peripheral portion of the rotary furnace floor 61 (see Patent Reference 2, for example).